Between Love and Sex

A story by Songstone

Songstone: This story has to be, by far, one of the LONGEST that I have ever done. OMG. D: But I'm REALLY proud of how it came out! I had had a dream about this situation a while back, and it took me forever to write. XD But I did it at last! 8D Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Tobi."

The masked man lifted his head from the paper he had been writing on when he heard his name being called. His visible eye landed on the form of Sasori as the puppeteer stood in the doorway of his bedroom.

"Ah! Sasori-san!" Tobi exclaimed excitedly. He pushed himself up from the position on his belly that he had been lying in and knelt on his mattress instead. It was rare for him to hear from anyone in the Akatsuki; he was nothing more than Zetsu's subordinate after all, so he really had no place with the actual members of the organization.

"I need a favour from you." The redhead informed him, stepping fully into the room and shutting the door after himself.

"Really? From me? Okay! What is it, Sasori-san?" Tobi was bouncing up and down eagerly on his bed now, and the groaning of metal springs in the matress made Sasori's nose wrinkle.

There was an expression that briefly crossed Sasori's face; one that blatantly showed that he was debating whether or not he actually needed to ask Tobi for this favour. He had an internal battle for about three seconds, weighing the pros and cons of this choice, and then he made a noise similar to a sigh before he spoke.

"It involves Deidara."

"Ooh..." Tobi stopped his bouncing at the mention of the blond Akatsuki member. He was infatuated with the bomber, and had no trouble with expressing that fact. The only thing keeping him away from Deidara was Deidara; the blond didn't particularly like Tobi, so he kept his distance. Not to mention the fact that Sasori made it very clear that Deidara was his and his alone. "What about Sempai, Sasori-san?"

Again, for the briefest of moments, Sasori hesitated. His eyes tightened as he watched Tobi closely, and then he began to speak again. "Deidara and I are...involved with one another, as you should be well aware."

Tobi nodded his head.

Sasori 'tsk'ed and crossed his arms over his chest; covering up for what might have been another brief moment of reconsideration. "Deidara is human. He's young, too. It shouldn't really be surprising if I told you that he is nearly constantly raging with hormones and trying to get me into bed." Sasori saw Tobi's eye flinch slightly, and he faintly tilted his nose in the air in smug possessiveness.

"But I believe you also know that I've traded in my body long ago for a work of art that will never fade away." Sasori continued monotonously. "My flesh and blood are long gone. Every part of me that wasn't crucial to my existence I disposed of."

The redhead watched Tobi closely wanting to see his reaction to his words thus far. The mask the other wore made reading emotions hard, however. One eye was not enough to give away much.

"How come you're telling me stuff I already know, Sasori-san?" Tobi asked. He was sitting completely still, now, and the sight was something Sasori never thought that he'd see. It was almost unnerving to have the Akatsuki wannabe keeping himself calm.

"I'm making a point; now pay close attention." Sasori snapped in response to Tobi's ignorance. He glared lightly at the masked man and waited for the other to nod before he continued. "As I said before, Deidara yearns for more physical acts of affection from me. This is halted only because I no longer possess the necessary human anatomy to fulfil his needs."

"Oh, you mean you don't have a dick." Sasori glowered at Tobi for his inturruption and also for his crude way of stating things. The masked man quieted down again after catching the heated look the puppeteer was shooting him. "Sorry."

"Hn." Sasori's glare let up slightly. "You're correct, no mater how illiterately you choose to use your words." He admitted. "And refusing Deidara lately hasn't been easy. He needs physical attention; perhaps not as desperately as one would need food or water, but it's a basic human desire. I dislike holding him back from that."

The redhead's eyes tightened again, but this time he wasn't glaring at Tobi. He was boring holes into the wall above the other man's head with only his eyes, hating to admit to the fact that he couldn't offer Deidara everything he deserved.

"...So...?" Tobi piped up when Sasori had paused and seemed to be preoccupied. "Why are you telling me this? I thought you wanted a favour." The masked man flopped backwards into his mattress, his arms moving over his head so that he could use them as pillows.

Brown orbs snapped back down from the wall, focusing once more on Tobi's face and mask. "This is the favour." Sasori informed the subordinate.

"I'm not...following." Tobi said, his head tilting to the side in a confused manner.

Sasori was sure that if he had the proper means to do so, that he would be developing a migraine just then. He pinched the bridge of his nose as if he actually was suffering from discomfort and was trying to soothe it away weakly.

"You claim that you're in love with Deidara." The redhead stated. "And not only that, but you've got a human body to go with the emotional attachment that you say you have towards him." Sasori paused deliberately, making sure that Tobi was paying close attention to his words. When he caught the glint of growing curiosity in Tobi's right eye, he lowered his hand from his nose and concluded what he had sought out to ask in the first place.

"I want you to have sex with Deidara."

"What?" The raven haired man pushed himself back up from his relaxed position quickly, shooting up almost like bread leaping out of a toaster. "You want me--what? With--but--"

"Trust me, if I could find someone other than you to ask, then I would." Sasori clarified blandly. He personally didn't care too much for Tobi; the main reason being that the man was loud and hyperactive in a way that made even Deidara seem like an old prude. Sasori didn't like loud people. "But I'm not about to grab someone at random--someone that couldn't really care less about Deidara--and force them onto him. Why should I? That would be empty and pointless. I care for him, and if I was able to, I would express that with my body. It would mean something. I believe that since you claim to have strong feelings towards my partner that you would be the best choice for this. That perhaps this, too, could mean something for him."

Tobi had at least stopped flailing his arms around himself like an idiot. Sasori supposed that even he could see this logic. The man was once more still and quiet as he listened to Sasori's reasoning. He crossed his arms over his chest finally and made a thoughtful sound as he looked down to the blanket over his bed. This was the most serious that Sasori (and probably anyone else) had ever seen the man. He had a much stronger, more sensible air around him now.

Sasori supposed that even Tobi could tell a serious matter when it was presented to him. Maybe he wasn't completely dense after all.

"You never want me anywhere near Deidara-sempai. And now you're telling me you want me to..." Tobi lifted his head to glance at Sasori questioningly as his words trailed off. "Have you even asked Deidara-sempai about this?"

"I haven't." Sasori shook his head.

"Then why are you--"

"In any normal circumstance, I would keep you away from Deidara by any means necessary. But I feel strongly that this is something that Deidara would enjoy. I'll even be so bold as to say he probably needs this too. He won't refuse." The redhead nodded positively to himself. "I will be more than willing to ignore my dislike for you long enough to be sure that he gets what he wants." That statement was uncomfortably emotional for Sasori's taste, but he stood firm in his words.

He held a straight posture as he waited for an answer from Tobi. The man had lowered his head again and seemed to be distracted, or very deep in thought. Finally, after several long moments, the raven haired man picked up his head again and his right eye caught both of Sasori's. The orange mask bobbed up and down once as Tobi nodded. "Fine. I'll accept this favour." He said.

"Good." Sasori gave a small nod of his own. "But, there will be some rules to this agreement."

"Knowing you, I'm not surprised." Sasori would never get used to being able to talk to Tobi and actually have the other retort intelligently. The whole idea that Tobi was smarter than he acted seemed bizarre. "What are the rules?"

"Rule one is very simple. And it's the one that you must remember at all times." The redhead crossed his arms again. "Deidara is mine and no matter what I allow you to get away with while you've got him in bed, he is to remain mine. So you have no bragging rights, and no rights to believe that you have stolen him from me. Got that?"

"Seems fair. Fine, got it. And the other rules?" Tobi asked, resting his chin into the palm of one hand as he planted his elbow into the mattress.

"Rule two is that you aren't allowed to kiss him. At all. Not on any set of his lips." Sasori waited for the nod of agreement from Tobi, and once he'd gotten that after a grumble of disappointment, he held up three fingers. "Rule three; I am to be present at all times. This will not happen when I am not there and when I haven't approved it."

"Hn, you've got me completely cornered then." Tobi made a small snicker, then waved his free hand. "Okay, okay. I agree to that. Is that all?"

"Not quite." Sasori lifted up a fourth finger. "One more rule."

Tobi's eyebrow seemed to hitch at that, and he tilted his head curiously. Sasori couldn't be sure, but he would guess that Tobi might have been smirking behind his mask.

"I'm game." The raven haired man said with a nod. "Name your price."

- - -

The door to Sasori and Deidara's room crashed inward and slammed against the wall roughly; the noise echoed around the room for a moment or two, but neither of the artists seemed to notice. They were caught in a heated lip-lock, so petty things like doorknobs sinking into the wall didn't bother them.

Sasori didn't see the fascination that Deidara had with kissing him so much (not to mention that he could only feel Deidara if he concentrated his chakra directly into his mouth), but he did rather like how the blond got too wrapped up for his own good.

"Ahhn..." Deidara pulled at the back of Sasori's neck greedily, yanking him forward and into a much deeper, wetter kiss. Sasori kicked their door shut with his foot and managed to turn the lock on the handle all while rolling his tongue against Deidara's own in a practiced manner. The blond hummed in pleasure against his lips.

"Deidara..." Sasori brought his head back a bit so that his mouth was free to form words.

"Yeah, Master?" Deidara asked, already breathless. He was pushing against Sasori's body fully, his arms caught around the redhead's neck, keeping their faces within a breath's reach of one another.

"Getting a bit carried away, ne?" Sasori questioned in a low tone as he smirked faintly at the blond. It was rare for Sasori to smile, or to show any form of facial expression, really. This small sign that he was in one of his better moods just showed how hard he was working to try and keep Deidara comfortable around him.

"Yeah." Deidara said again, breaking out into that genuine grin he almost always wore. He put his lips back onto Sasori's briefly, then eased back again, licking at his lips. "Lie down with me." He requested, leaning his body back a bit towards where their bed stood.

"Hn." Sasori gave a nod and complied to Deidara's movements, managing to bring the both of them to the side of the bed even with Deidara all but clinging to his neck.

The blond seated himself and made sure to pull Sasori down with him. The redhead was yanked downwards by the neck and was made to lie over Deidara, the blond having positioned himself on his back. "Hnn..." Deidara mumbled with a small, sly smirk before Sasori would be able to complain about their new position. He lifted his head and put his lips to Sasori's once more.

The redhead didn't complain like he usually did, however. He let Deidara get caught up in their kisses this time and allowed the blond to slide a leg over his back in order to yank Sasori closer to his body.

If Sasori was able to feel temperature in this body, he had no doubt that all he would be able to feel just then was heat. Deidara's face was flushed, nearly feverish looking, and he was squirming beneath the redhead's artificial body restlessly. Sasori had no doubt in his mind that Deidara's body was far beyond heated by now, and he gave a mental roll of the eyes.

"How many times do I have to tell you, brat?" Sasori questioned his partner as he broke off another long, sticky kiss. "If you get too overexcited in these situations, you'll only be dissapointed in the end."

"Nngh..." Deidara panted, breathless by then. He squirmed again, his hips brushing upwards against Sasori's in what might have been vain hope. "I know, yeah..." He said. "But Sasori-danna, can't you--"

"I can't." Sasori said before Deidara could ask his question. "I've told you what must be a million times by now that I can't satisfy you this way. I'm not properly equiped."

"Bu-but what about--"

"My cable wire is made of metal, Deidara. It's rough all the way around and sharpened at the end; plus it's covered in poison. I highly doubt that you'd want that anywhere around, or in, your body."

The blond made a displeased whine and Sasori heard rather than felt Deidara's nails scrapping over his back in what might have been desperation. "Sasori-danna..." The blond moaned, drowning out the last syllable of his master's title in a saddened whine.

"Don't give me that." Sasori said sternly. He came off brash and irritated by Deidara's begging look, but those negative emotions (even if he hated admitting he felt them) were directed at himself. He didn't like to refuse his lover like this and leave him hot and bothered with nothing to do but ease the discomfort by himself.

But, Sasori was glad that this time he had a backup plan for precisely this situation. He grabbed Deidara's shoulder with one hand, keeping the blond pushed flat against the mattress when the other had tried to wiggle his way out from underneath Sasori. "I can't satisfy you sexually, Deidara." The redhead stated. "But I've got someone who can help me."

"What?" Deidara blinked up at Sasori, confused. "Someone to...help you, yeah?" He asked, more than obviously taken aback and curious about what his partner meant.

"Hn." Sasori nodded once. He released Deidara's shoulder and lifted his hand up a bit, all five fingers pointed out and firm. The bluish glow of chakra wires probably wasn't visible to Deidara, given how thin they were, but Sasori didn't bother with explaining his actions. His ring finger twitched slightly, and a shuffling sound was heard from the far corner of the bedroom.

Deidara must have been quite caught up in the fooling around he had been doing with Sasori since the blond hadn't noticed the third presence in their room. The sound of feet padding across the room startled him since he tensed beneath Sasori's artificial body.

"Sasori-san, I can walk on my own!" Deidara's visible eye widened when he recognized the dreaded voice of Zetsu's subordinate, Tobi.

"What the fuck is he doing in here, yeah?!" The blond demanded to know, working to prop himself up onto his elbows so that he could glance over his shoulder and glare at the raven haired man. "Out, Tobi!"

"Aw, Deidara-Sempai!" The pout was heard clearly in Tobi's words as he spoke from behind his orange mask.

"Deidara settle down. Tobi is the one who will be assisting me here." Sasori's words not only brought on a jaw-dropping gaze of disgust from the blond beneath him, but was also the cause of the heated blush that spread over Deidara's face.

"Over my dead body, yeah!" He protested blatantly. "I thought you meant you had a...a puppet that was equipped for this kind of thing, and instead you tell me you brought Tobi?! Tobi of all people, Sasori-danna!"

"I thought you said that he wouldn't refuse." Sasori glared at Tobi harshly for making that smart remark.

"Deidara, there is reasoning behind this choice." Sasori began, turning his brown eyes back to focus on Deidara. "I wouldn't bring someone who didn't really care about you. You mean something to Tobi, too. And sex is usually between people with strong feelings for one another."

"How can you expect me to allow this? I don't like Tobi, yeah." Deidara snapped, not appeased in the slightest. Besides the bed, Tobi huffed as if deeply insulted.

Sasori rolled his eyes. "But you claim to love me. Correct?"

"Well, yeah, but--"

"I'm making up for what I can't give you with someone who can. Someone who cares for you almost as much as I do. And someone who has agreed to be completely under my control. That way, every move he makes will be mine; I will be with you. Do you see it, Deidara? Can you accept this?" The last statement held a bit more meaning than it sounded when first heard; Sasori was offering Deidara something that he found greatly important to a young human. He wasn't trying to hold the blond back from anything. All Deidara had to do was agree with this arrangement so that all of Sasori's planning and efforts wouldn't have been in vain.

The blond was silent for a long time. For a while, Sasori entertained the thought of releasing Tobi, removing himself from Deidara and calling the whole scenario off. Why waste his time when his partner didn't even seem to want things this way? But then Deidara spoke up, and Sasori halted his negative thoughts to hear him out.

"It will be...how you would be, yeah?" The blond asked in a hushed voice. He kept his eye focused strictly on Sasori as he peered up at him from his back; both men ignored Tobi for the moment and just stared, unblinking, into each other's eyes.

The redhead didn't have to speak to give his assurance to the question asked; Deidara seemed to read it in the puppeteer's unfaltering gaze and his face seemed to relax as if he were satisfied all of a sudden. "Okay." The bomber agreed quietly. "Okay, Sasori-danna."

- - -

Sasori worked vigorously to restrain the pety and ridiculous emotion that was jealousy as he watched Tobi slam himself into Deidara's body. It helped to know that he could stop Tobi at any time since he still controlled the man's every move. But why should he stop when he had his lover moaning in ecstasy in his lap?

Deidara was on his knees, his arms wrapped around Sasori's wasit and hugging himself against the puppeteer while his head rested in what might have been quite a sexual area if Sasori had had the proper human anatomy.

Tobi was on his knees as well, though he was upright; one hand held Deidara's hip to keep him steady and the other was rested in the middle of the blond's back leisurely. Sasori, using his chakra wires, made Tobi hold that postion with one of his hands while the other worked on keeping the raven haired man's hips rocking against Deidara at a steady pace.

"Aahh...! Nngh...y-yeah. H-harder..." The bomber moaned against Sasori's lower abdominal area. He hugged onto Sasori's waist tighter as his partner fulfilled his request, and he bit down a whine, though it still escaped him, muffled or not.

Deidara was a virgin up until now, so the puppeteer was a bit cautious about how fast and how rough he would allow Tobi to move. He wanted his partner to be able to walk after this was all over, after all. He kept all 'rough handling' out of each fluid movement he created with Tobi's body.

"Hnn...aahh..." The raven haired man moaned as well, his head falling back onto his shoulders. Sasori chanced a quick glance up to the man's face; with Deidara facing the opposite way, Tobi had moved the right side of his mask off of his face for his own comfort. The blood red of his Sharingan was hidden now as his eyelids slid shut. That was probably a good thing, though. If Deidara were to ever catch even a glimpse of that, he would most likely kill himself for being screwed up the ass by an Uchiha.

"S-Sa...sori, ahhhh..." Deidara gasped, his back arching slightly. The blond lifted his hands from around Sasori's waist and gripped firmly at the redhead's shoulders.

Sasori didn't complain. He let Deidara do as he pleased. He did find it strange that Deidara would lift himself up, however, to be more or less eye-to-eye with his partner.

"Deidara..." The puppeteer's eyes moved over every inch of Deidara's face, studying and taking note of every new detail. The hazy, pleasure filled eyes, the lips parted and panting, the streaks of saliva that made their way down the side of the bomber's chin...It was a beautiful thing to behold.

Sasori saw a flash of human flesh move from the corner of his eye and realized that Deidara had placed his palm flat against his cheek. He didn't say or do anything about it, but he soon found that it wasn't there for nothing; Deidara pulled Sasori's head down using that hand, and he brought his lips up to meet his partner's.

For a moment or two, Sasori was quite surprised by this. He felt his control waver just faintly because of it, but he regained himself quickly enough so that Tobi wouldn't break free from his strings.

Sasori was glad to have Deidara kissing him again; it showed him that he was correct about this plan. Deidara had sexual satisfaction with Tobi, but on another side, he had Sasori. And Sasori offered him protection, shelter and love. Pure, unwavering and steadily growing love. Sasori found it odd that he knew this emotion better than any other and that he had no problem with admitting it; he hadn't felt such a strong emotional pull towards someone since he had lived in Suna. But this love was much, much deeper than one with family members.

This love was from the heart; from the very core of his being. Sasori was sure Deidara knew all of this in that five second kiss they shared. They connected enough in those five seconds for Deidara to be able to read Sasori inside out and upside down if he wished; but all the blond was looking for was the same assurance that Sasori needed. The answer to the question "Do you love me?"

- - -

More than air, yeah.

More than life itself.

- - -

Deidara lay in a sweaty, exhausted heap in Sasori's lap nearly thirty minutes later. His head was once more between Sasori's legs and his arms were wound around the puppeteer's waist limply. His back was rising and falling with each rapid breath he sucked in, and Sasori could hear his hums signalling the dying of his climax.

Sasori lifted his eyes from Deidara for a moment to glance at Tobi. He had all but been ignoring the man as he had watched Deidara's every movement for the past thirty minutes. He found the man sweaty, tired looking, but otherwise very, very content.

Tobi offered a small smirk to Sasori as the redhead moved his body back from Deidara's slowly and made him pull his mask back over his face fully.

"You're able to leave now." The puppeteer stated as he broke the chakra strings that had been attached to Tobi's body. He lowered his hands and was able to, at last, stroke Deidara's hair and caress the side of his face. The blond made a muffled sound of enjoyment at the motions.

"That's all? Don't I even get to lie here and rest a while?" The raven haired man asked. He wasn't truly disappointed, though; Sasori could tell from the sound of his voice that he was teasing. "Talk about a hit and run..."

"Out, Tobi." Deidara's tired sounding voice drifted up from Sasori's groin area, and both men paused to look down at the blond. After a moment, both of them gave a faint chuckle.

"If you say so, Deidara-sempai." Tobi said. He grabbed his clothes from the floor and quickly dressed himself. He stopped in the doorway just as he was about to step outside and looked back over his shoulder. "Same time next week, Sasori-san?"

"I'll summon you then." The redhead nodded.

The Uchiha gave a laugh to that and, with a parting wave, he left the two artists alone in their room.

After the lock had clicked shut, Deidara shifted his body slowly. He hissed when he moved his legs, and Sasori lightly began to rub at his shoulders. "Stay lying down like this." He instructed. With one free hand, the redhead reached behind himself and grabbed a pillow from the head of the mattress. He lay it between Deidara's head and his lap in one quick motion and with a flick of the finger, he had the blanket draped comfortably over his partner's naked body. "There."

"Hn..." Deidara nodded into the pillow slowly and wrapped his arms tighter around Sasori's waist. "Thanks, yeah." He muttered.

"Sure." Sasori went back to occupying himself with Deidara's hair.

"...Hey, Sasori-danna?" The bomber spoke up again after a few minutes of quiet.

"What, brat?" The redhead answered in his usual fashion, though his voice held no bite to it as he refferred to Deidara with the not-so-flattering-nickname he had given him.

"I love you, yeah."

Sasori hesitated only for a moment before he closed his own eyes and smiled to himself, genuinely. He felt that he could simply stay this way with Deidara forever. One lifetime wasn't enough; he and Deidara were meant to be together for an eternity. He was sure of it. And even if Deidara would bitch and whine about 'fleeting moments,' Sasori knew that the blond felt the exact same way.

"I love you, too."

Songstone: I almost didn't add the "I love you, too" bit, but I figured what the hell? XD This story turned out mushy anyway. But in a good way! 8D As always, please let me know what you thought! I love reviews, and they fuel my creative bonfire!